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How the Church in England and Wales works with the Police

08/04/2014 10:54 am

Combating Human Trafficking

Church and Law Enforcement in Partnership

The main aim of the two-day international anti-trafficking conference in Rome is to build on previous engagement with Law Enforcement agencies to raise awareness of the scale of human trafficking and to develop ways of countering it more effectively through Catholic networks.

The process is based on the successful collaboration developed between the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and the UK Metropolitan Police Service.

This has four key components:

Prevention in which awareness-raising takes place in a target country about the reality of what migration to a Western state involves and in the host society about the realities of human trafficking.

Pastoral Care in-country: For example, through careful examination of how victims can be helped pastorally and practically when they are apprehended by statutory authorities.

Re-integration: How can adequate support be given to help victims resettle into the host country or give them the option to return to their home state if desirable.

Developing an International Network of Bishops’ Conferences and Law Enforcement agencies: Human trafficking is a serious crime and our response to it needs to involve more productive working with policing and prosecuting agencies so that people who are trafficked into exploitation can be treated as victims